Taking the bull by the horns…

By Marc L., President of AdultChamber

As webmasters, our websites age; links to pages within, and links to other sites, sometimes get disconnected. We have our own jobs to do, and we focus on them day in, and day out. What I want to discuss here is “Website Updating”.

Here at Adult Chamber, we have six to seven full-time employees who all work at our office in Boca Raton, Florida. We have two Unix System Administrators, a high-end Website Developer and programmer, two Internet marketing specialists who handle SEO and SEM (Search Engine Optimization and Marketing), etc. One would think that if a company ran three or four websites, with so many dedicated people, the sites would always be up to date. But the reality is, with tens of thousands of web pages, new items being implemented every week, and a recent changeover to a Content Management System (CMS), along with the reality that we create websites for new and seasoned adult webmasters, it is so easy to forget about existing pages and links; allowing them to age.

So, what is one to do to fix the website ageing issues?

Here at AdultChamber, we have assigned two employees to address outstanding issues and spend a solid week cleaning up what was invisible to our eyes, yet clearly a growing problem. Staff changeover is a reality and it never helps website aging issues. Not everything one knows can be communicated to an existing or new employee, and when weeks pass, website aging issues become noticeable. If not addressed, outstanding issues would become so obvious; it would scar our name and reputation.

So here we are taking the bull by the horns, spending the man-hours needed to fix issues that need to be addressed. It’s painful, time consuming, and an overall pain in the ass. But, it has to get done!
When was the last time you asked someone to go to your website and to sign up? When was the last time you read those pages in the sign-up process, or re-read the email one gets after they sign up? Is it current? Can it be improved?

Share your thoughts on this sometimes troubling subject…